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Dennis Frederiksen
Dennis Hardy "Fergie" Frederiksen (May 15, 1951 – January 18, 2014) was an American rock singer best known as the former lead singer of Trillion, Angel, LeRoux and Toto, as well as providing backing vocals for Survivor. He contributed to hit singles in three consecutive years, all with different bands: Survivor's "American Heartbeat" in 1982, LeRoux's "Carrie's Gone" in 1983 and Toto's " Stranger in Town" in 1984. Early life and career Frederiksen started his musical career at the age of 13, and he played clubs and pubs at the age of 15 with a group called the Common People in Grand Rapids, MI. In 1975, while he was still attending college at Central Michigan, Frederiksen was asked by his friend Tommy Shaw to replace him as the lead vocalist for the band MSFunk, as Shaw was leaving to join Styx.Fergie Frederiksen biography
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Grand Rapids, Michigan
Grand Rapids is the largest city and county seat of Kent County, Michigan, United States. With a population of 198,917 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 200,117 in 2024, Grand Rapids is the List of municipalities in Michigan, second-most populous city in Michigan. The Grand Rapids metropolitan area has a population of 1.16 million and a combined statistical area population of 1.5 million. Grand Rapids is situated along the Grand River (Michigan), Grand River approximately east of Lake Michigan and is the economic and cultural hub of West Michigan. A historic furniture manufacturing center, Grand Rapids is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies and is nicknamed "Furniture City". As a result of the numerous micro and craft breweries, many with notable reputations nationally such as Founders and New Holland which are known globally, Grand Rapids is also known as "Beer City USA". Due to the prominence of the Grand River, many l ...
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Rock Music
Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom. It has its roots in rock and roll, a style that drew from the black musical genres of blues and rhythm and blues, as well as from country music. Rock also drew strongly from genres such as electric blues and folk music, folk, and incorporated influences from jazz and other styles. Rock is typically centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass guitar, drum kit, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music with a Time signature, time signature and using a verse–chorus form; however, the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political. Rock was the most p ...
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Album-oriented Rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the late 1960s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. US radio stations dedicated to playing album tracks by rock artists from the hard rock and progressive rock genres initially established album-oriented radio. In the mid-1970s, AOR was characterized by a layered, mellifluous sound and sophisticated production with considerable dependence on melodic hooks. The AOR format achieved tremendous popularity in the late 1960s to the early 1980s through research and formal programming to create an album rock format with great commercial appeal. From the early 1980s onward, the abbreviation AOR transitioned from "album-oriented radio" to "album-oriented rock", meaning radio stations specialized in classic rock recorded during the late 1960s and 1970s. The term is also commonly conflated with " adult-or ...
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Billboard 200
The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a recording act is remembered for its " number ones" that outperformed all other albums during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, acquiring its existing name in March 1992. Its previous names include the ''Billboard'' Top LPs (1961–1972), ''Billboard'' Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), ''Billboard'' Top 200 Albums (1984–1985), ''Billboard'' Top Pop Albums (1985–1991), and ''Billboard'' 200 Top Albums (1991–1992). The chart is based mostly on sales—both at retail and digital – of albums in the United States. The weekly sales period was Monday to Sunday when Nielsen started tracking sales in 1991, but since July 2015, the tracking week begins on Friday (to coincide ...
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Can't Stop The Music
''Can't Stop the Music'' is a 1980 American musical comedy film directed by Nancy Walker in her only directed featured film. Written by Allan Carr and Bronté Woodard, the film is a pseudo-biography of the 1970s disco group the Village People loosely based on the actual story of how the group formed. The film also stars Valerie Perrine, Caitlyn Jenner in her film debut, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Sand, Tammy Grimes, June Havoc, Barbara Rush, Altovise Davis, Marilyn Sokol and The Ritchie Family in their only film. Produced by Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment (formerly EMI Films), distributed by independent distributor Associated Film Distribution (AFD), the film was released after disco's peak. It received largely negative reviews from critics and was a box office bomb. Alongside '' Xanadu'', ''Can't Stop the Music'' is known for inspiring the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards, winning the first Razzies for Worst Picture and Worst Screenplay. Plot Songwriter ...
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Casablanca Records
Casablanca Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group and operated under Republic Records. Under its founder Neil Bogart, Casablanca was most successful during the disco era of the mid to late 1970s. The label focuses on dance and electronic music under the direction of Brett Alperowitz. History Neil Bogart (originally Bogatz until adopting the name of his favorite actor Humphrey Bogart) founded Casablanca Records after departing of Buddah Records due to clashes with its owners. In 1973 Bogart enticed Warner Bros. Records into financing Casablanca. Due to Warner's ownership of all rights to the film ''Casablanca,'' Bogart's adoption of the movie's name and title look for its records label logo went without legal objection. The label's first signing was Kiss but its first single release was Bill Amesbury's "Virginia (Touch Me Like You Do)", a minor hit on the US Hot 100. "Butter Boy" by Fanny and The Hudson Brothers' "So You Are a Star" proved to ...
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Aerosmith
Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of lead vocalist Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarists Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry and Brad Whitford. Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has also incorporated elements of pop rock, heavy metal music, heavy metal, glam metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many subsequent rock artists. Aerosmith is sometimes referred to as "the Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band".Whatever there is to say now about Aerosmith, the long-lasting, hard-rocking quintet that has often been billed or hyped as America's greatest rock and roll band, it could have been said two decades ago. The primary songwriting team of Tyler and Perry is sometimes referred to as the "Toxic Twins". Perry and Hamilton were originally in a band together, the Jam Band, where they met up with Tyler, Kramer, guitari ...
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Heart (band)
Heart is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1973. The band evolved from previous projects led by founding members Roger Fisher (guitarist), Roger Fisher (guitar) and Steve Fossen (bass guitar), including The Army (1967–1969), Hocus Pocus (1969–1970), and White Heart (1970–1973). By 1975, original members Fisher, Fossen, and Ann Wilson (lead vocals and flute), along with Nancy Wilson (rock musician), Nancy Wilson (rhythm guitar, vocals), Michael Derosier (drums), and Howard Leese (guitar, keyboards and backing vocals) formed the lineup for the band's initial mid- to late-1970s success period. These core members were included in the band's 2013 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Heart rose to fame with music influenced by hard rock and heavy metal music, heavy metal as well as folk music. The band underwent a major lineup change between the late 1970s and the early 1980s; by 1982 Fisher, Fossen, and Derosier had all left and were replaced by ...
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Foreigner (band)
Foreigner is a British-American rock band formed in New York City in 1976. The band's original lineup consisted of vocalist Lou Gramm, guitarist Mick Jones (Foreigner guitarist), Mick Jones, drummer Dennis Elliott, keyboardist Al Greenwood, multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald (musician), Ian McDonald (formerly of King Crimson), and bassist Ed Gagliardi. Foreigner is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling bands of all time, with worldwide sales exceeding 80 million records, including 38 million in the US. Jones came up with the band name because he, Elliott, and McDonald were British, while Gramm, Greenwood, and Gagliardi were American, meaning at least half the members would be considered foreigners regardless of the country they were in. In 1977, Foreigner released its Foreigner (Foreigner album), self-titled debut album, the first of six consecutive albums to be certified multi-platinum and reach the Top 10 in the US. The album produced two US Top 10 single ...
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Patrick Leonard
Patrick Ray Leonard (born March 14, 1956) is an American songwriter, keyboardist, film composer, and music producer, best known for his longtime collaboration with Madonna. His work with Madonna includes her albums '' True Blue'' (1986), '' Who's That Girl'' (1987), '' Like a Prayer'' (1989), '' I'm Breathless'' (1990) and '' Ray of Light'' (1998). He scored Madonna's 2008 documentary '' I Am Because We Are,'' played keyboards with her at Live Aid (1985), and was musical director and keyboardist on The Virgin Tour (1985) and the Who's That Girl World Tour (1987). Leonard has also worked with a wide variety of other artists including late-period Pink Floyd and solo Roger Waters, Elton John, Leonard Cohen, Bryan Ferry, Julian Lennon, Rod Stewart, Michael Jackson, Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck, Bryan Adams, Peter Cetera, Jewel, Blue October, Duncan Sheik, Michael W. Smith, Marianne Faithfull, and Robbie Robertson. He was half of the art-pop groups Toy Matinee with Kevin Gilb ...
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Styx (band)
Styx () is an American rock band formed in Chicago, Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ..., in 1972. They are known for blending melodic hard rock guitar with acoustic guitar, synthesizers mixed with Piano, acoustic piano, upbeat tracks with Sentimental ballad, power ballads, and incorporating elements of international musical theatre. The band established themselves with a progressive rock sound during the 1970s, and began to incorporate pop rock and soft rock elements in the 1980s. The original line-up comprised Dennis DeYoung, James Young (American musician), James "J.Y." Young, John Curulewski, John "J.C." Curulewski and brothers Chuck Panozzo, Chuck and John Panozzo. Debuting with ''Styx (album), Styx'' in 1972, the band usually released an album every ...
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Tommy Shaw
Tommy Roland Shaw (born September 11, 1953) is an American singer and guitarist best known for his tenure in the rock band Styx (band), Styx as co-lead vocalist. In between his stints with Styx, he has played with other groups including Damn Yankees (band), Damn Yankees and Shaw Blades as well as releasing several solo albums. Early life and music career Tommy Shaw was born in Montgomery, Alabama, and played with many local bands in his early years. He left Montgomery after attending Robert E. Lee High School (Montgomery, Alabama), Robert E. Lee High School to join The Smoke Ring (band), The Smoke Ring and then MSFunk, a Chicago-managed outfit that he played with for three years, which gave him a chance to be noticed by Styx (band), Styx during a two-week club gig in Chicago. After MSFunk disbanded, he went back to Montgomery to join a local group called Harvest with his childhood friends. Following Styx's move to A&M Records, A&M, guitarist and vocalist John Curulewski suddenl ...
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